Thursday, July 19, 2012

Church, Monotheism, Salvation and Welcome the the Machine

Pulled Derrick Jensen's Welcome to the Machine off the shelf this morning. I'm still thinking about the affects of monotheism on our psyches and the Christian fundamentalists I was listening to on the mail route last week. These two quotes will be useful to me some day, I think.

"The policy of the Catholic Church has been and continues to be Nulla salus extra ecclesium, which means 'Outside the Church there is no salvation.' This statement manifests not only the eradication of diversity that characterizes our culture but also inadvertently suggests the misery our culture leads to: outside this oppressive culture there is no need for salvation."[Pg.85, Welcome to the Machine]

"When those in power say that outside the Church there can be no salvation, they are lying. What they are really saying is that you better not escape, because if you are outside of this Church, your continued existence (and happiness) will shake their belief in the notion that the Church is good for them. Thus the one who can be saved only if you remain in the Church is the Church itself. If you leave, it ceases to be the arbiter of all meaning and the source of salvation. The salvation of the Church requires not only your belief and participation, but if you leave it requires your death, and beyond that, your annihilation. In industry, science, religion, and other institutions, diversity must be eliminated.[Pg.85, Welcome to the Machine]